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Progressive Era

Progressive Era Web Sites

America 1900
America 1900 by PBS American Experience paints a picture of life in the United States at the outset of the Progressive Era and does so through images, text, maps, and documents and also through varied perspectives. Key features of this site include an interactive map that provides you with a list of events in the region of the world you select and a search function for locating people and events of the early part of the century. A special feature is a genealogical “tree building” program to trace your family’s roots, and a teacher’s guide. Key themes include impact of technology, racism, immigration, national identity, and rise of America as a world power

Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930
A Harvard University web-based collection, this site contains a huge collection of primary sources on immigration to the United States, including 1,800 books and pamphlets, 13,000 pages from manuscripts and 9,000 photographs. The collection has very broad coverage and though the amount of information could be overwhelming, the web site is easy to navigate. Documents from the Progressive Era (1900 – 1919) include Dillingham Commission, California’s Alien Land Law, and the Immigration Act of 1917.

TR, The Story of Theodore Roosevelt
A companion to the PBS American Experience video series, this site features real audio interviews, biographies, a timeline, a teacher’s guide and a discussion of Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy. Learn about TR’s Progressive Era reform inititives as well as his legacy in environment and the Panama Canal. Listen to a discussion of Theodore Roosevelt by noted historian David McCullough.

American History in the Making: The Progressives
This Annenberg module focus on three themes: the growing industrial labor market, the damage created by a burgeoning commercial and industrial economy, and progressive era reforms. Each revolves around various primary sources, such as articles, posters, images, and more. A special feature is accompanying online Annenberg video presentations. A course module, there are also teacher guides and unit sources.

Impact of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle on Food Safety
Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle portrayed shockingly unsanitary conditions in Chicago stockyards more than 100 years ago and led to significant progressive era reforms, notable the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Listen to this National Public Radio podcast and hear Morris Dickstein of the City University discuss the book’s impact.

Meatpacking: Still a ” Jungle” out there?Learn about meatpacking in the U.S. and watch PBS Now video inside the world’s largest pork processing plant, located in Tar Heel, North Carolina. Read about how labor unions have changed over the years.

The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920
This Library of Congress web site documents the development of the conservation movement and offers a collection of books, pamphlets, federal statutes and resolutions, prints and photographs, a motion picture, and more.

Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
This website is a project of the Center for the Historical Study of Women and Gender at the State University of New York at Binghamton. About a fourth of the projects on Women and Social Movements remain freely available; the other projects, in addition to 25,000 pages of primary documents and enhanced searching tools, are available through Alexander Street Press. In the Teacher’s Corner there are twenty comprehensive lesson plans with over a hundred lesson ideas and six DBQ units, although some of these materials require a subscription.

The Triangle Factory Fire
This website provides a detailed account of the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City on 25th March, 1911 that claimed the lives of 146 young immigrant workers and highlighted inhumane working conditions. The Traiangle fire helped lead to progressive era labor reform.

A History of American Sweatshops
This Smithsonian exhibition explores the history of American sweatshops. There are three History sections: 1820-1880, 1880-1940, and 1940-1997. View images of artifacts from each period complete with historical context.

Half the People: 1917-1996
Part of PBS’s People’s Century television series, this site focuses of women’s fight for equal rights in the progressive era and beyond. There are interviews, a timeline, and a teacher’s guide.

Smith College offers an on-line exhibit and several lesson plans drawn from its collections. The lesson plans are directed at middle and high school students and make use of both the text-based documents and visual images that can be found at the curriculum portion of the Web site. They highlight women’s part in struggles for social change in the 20th century including labor, socialism, civil liberties, peace, racial justice, urban reform, welfare rights, and women’s rights.

Inside A Factory: Westinghouse Works, 1904
This Library of Congress site has 21 films of the Westinghouse companies that were intended to showcase the company’s operations. There is background information on the factories, a timeline, an index, a search function, and recommended sources.

History of Child Labor in the United States
This Talking History audio presentation features a conversation with Kristi Lindenmyer and commentary by David Larson, Creighton University labor law professor, on why Labor Day should be celebrated.

New York Underground
This PBS American Experience video companion site centers on the history of the development of the New York subway, which opened October 27, 1904. There are articles on the science and technology involved in building the subway as well as stories of those who died working on the project. There is a program transcript and discussion questions.

Life of Henry Ford
This introduces visitors to Henry Ford’s life and his Ford Motor Company. Learn about his work as an engineer and the formation and development of The Ford Motor Company. Visit the online “showroom” for images of the Model, as well as related advertising samples and sales literature.

Lucy Burns Photograph (History.com video)

Digital History: Progressive
Digital History features resource guides by topic and period. Reference resources include classroom handouts, chronologies, encyclopedia articles, glossaries, and an audio-visual archive including speeches, book talks and e-lectures by historians, and historical maps, music, newspaper articles, and images. The Progressive section leads to maps, images, fact-sheets, and more.

American Leaders Speak
Here you can listen to 59 sound recordings of speeches by American leaders from 1918-1920. The speeches focus on issues and events surrounding the First World War and the subsequent presidential election of 1920. From the Library of Congress.

The Wright Stuff
A companion to the American experience series, this site focuses on the story of the famous vacation brothers. There is a QuickTime movie that features a replica of Kitty hawk in flight as well as audio interviews and a bibliography.

Titanic
In 1998 National Geographic headquarters hosted screenings of a short, 3-D film shot at the wreck of the Titanic. See selected pictures from the filming, and more.

Conservation at a Crossroads – Lesson Plan
This Library of Congress lesson plan presents two independent units that use the decision to dam the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park as a means to explore the history of the conservation movement. The first unit focuses on major conservation thinkers such as Thoreau, Muir and Pinchot, and how the movement diversified over time; students also draw parallels to current environmental debates. The second unit focuses specifically on the debate over using the Hetch Hetchy to supply San Francisco with water; students engage in a mock debate to explore different sides and tease out differences between “preservationists” and “conservationists.” Both units feature pre-selected materials from Library of Congress collections, including writings by conversation advocates and opponents and Congressional documents. Designed for grades 11 and 12, but adaptable to grades 7 through 10.

Teacher Lesson Plan: Music and Our Reform History
By exploring sheet music, students analyze issues related to industrialization and reform to answer the essential question, “How does society respond to change?” Students will have the opportunity to create original lyrics and song covers that reflect the Progressive Era. Provided by the LOC, recommended for grades 7-12

Suffragists and Their Tactics – Lesson Plan
This Library of Congress lesson plan utilizes close analysis of three different primary sources (photos, broadsides and period articles) to explore the fight for women’s suffrage in terms of how and why women advocated change. Designed activities focus on what inferences can be made from primary sources and how to evaluate the efficacy of suffragists’ arguments in the time period they were made. For grades 10 to 12.

Women, Their Rights & Nothing Less – Lesson Plan
This relatively succinct lesson teaches students about both the different societal roles of women from 1840 to 1920 and the methods they used to achieve desired reforms. Using primary sources from the Library of Congress’ American Memory collections, students learn how tactics in the early women’s rights movement changed with the times, ultimately leading to women’s suffrage. The lesson culminates in a student-made timeline, which uses primary sources to explain the movement’s transformation over time. Designed for grades 9 to 12.

United We Stand – Lesson Plan
To understand American working conditions at the end of the 20th century, students explore primary materials from the Library of Congress’ American Memory collections. Using photographs, music, newspaper articles and editorials, the lesson allows students to explore the poor conditions that precipitated the rise of unions and determine how such primary sources can be used to justify arguments of those who claimed organizing labor was necessary. The lesson includes links to many specific, relevant documents from the American Memory collections. Designed for grades 8 to 10.

Then and Now: Public Health From 1900 to Today
Throughout the 20th Century, the world has become a healthier place, for example, life expectancy has increased by almost 30 years. These changes can be attributed to improvements in public health, disease control, sanitation, immunization, better maternal and child health, and healthier lifestyles. This lesson plan will examine the public health issues and diseases doctors faced during the 1900’s.

Doing the Decades – Lesson Plan
This is a broad, 10-week project where students focus on the major trends and changes in the United States from 1890 to 1941 and how these changes affected groups and individuals. Students are broken into groups by decade and cover six primary themes (such as immigration, industrialization and the growth of capitalism) and a series of topics. Students identify and utilize primary sources to discuss these changes, using materials from the Library of Congress’ American Memory collections and other materials they gather. Designed for grades 6 to 12.

Interpreting Primary Sources
Digital History provides brief excerpts from primary sources and statistics and questions to think about. Check out “Urban Political Machines,” “Immigration,” “Problems of Youth,” and “Progressive Reform and the Trusts.”

Rounding the Bases – Lesson Plan
This lesson challenges students to investigate the roles that race and ethnicity have played in the United States by utilizing the lens of baseball. Covering the period from 1860 to 1959, students are divided into groups each investigating a 20-year segment of time and use primary sources from the Library of Congress’s American Memory collection to develop and defend a unique historical hypothesis about race and ethnicity. Students draw parallels between the changing role of race and ethnicity in the history of baseball to the changing role these factors played in broader American society. Designed for grades 9 to 12.

Stand Up and Sing – Lesson Plan
After receiving background on industrialization and the Progressive Era, students explore sheet music to identify themes within songs and address the broader question, “How does society respond to change?” Students use four different Library of Congress American Memory collections documenting American music from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to explore how reform issues were reflected on and editorialized in songs. The lesson facilitates a discussion of what role music played in reform and how it has been utilized as a means of free speech. Designed for grades 7 to 12.

Turn-of-the-Century Child – Lesson Plan
This lesson focuses on using close analysis of photographs to teach students the difference between observation and deduction. By using photographs from their personal lives and then photographs from the Library of Congress’s American Memory collections, students understand how photographs help form a historical record and how they can be used to generate research questions. Designed for grades 6 to 8.

Nature’s Fury – Lesson Plan
Students draw from a vast collection of primary sources from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, including poems, diaries, photographs, motion pictures, interviews and more, to investigate human experience with and reaction to natural disaster. Drawing from 16 of the Library of Congress’s American Memory collections, students learn enough about a single natural disaster’s effect on the population to present a mock first-person account of the event as if they were a witness to it. Designed for grades 5 to 8.

American Immigration
The American Immigration Home Page was started as a part of a school project for a 10th grade American History Class. The project was meant to give information on how immigrants were treated, as well as why they decided to come to America.

Technology in America (PBS)-Timeline
From Benjamin Franklin’s lightning rod to the Hubble Space Telescope, this timeline covers some of America’s technological innovations and inventions